• yogurtwrong@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Doesn’t hooker also mean sex worker? As in the person who does hookups.

    English is not my first language but I never thought it was a slur, I don’t think it is.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 days ago

      As in the person who does hookups.

      That’s not where the word originates.

      The term “hooker” existed long before anyone called sex “hooking up.”

      People used “hooking” itself as a verb to describe a woman having sex for money.

      I don’t know if I’d call it a “slur,” per se, but it’s definitely derogatory, and has gone out of parlance in favor of more neutral terms like “sex worker.”

      Because everyone deserves basic respect.

    • subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      I’d call it a minor slur in English. More polite than “whor e” and less than “prostitute”

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      A hooker is a subset of sex workers. You wouldn’t call someone that makes most of their money on OnlyFans a hooker, but they are sex workers